Freelancer tax calculator

Enter the income and the expenses. It shows the pension contribution, the health contribution and the income tax separately, each with the base it was computed on, and where you stand against the thresholds that matter.

How your income is set

Gross income received (lei/year)

Deductible expenses (lei/year)

What else you have, besides the freelance work

It is not a single checkbox, because the law does not have one either. Some situations cancel the pension contribution, others only the minimum health base. Tick what is true for the year you are asking about.

I have a salary of at least 6 minimum wages a year — 24,300 lei grossremoves the minimum health base; the pension contribution stays I receive a pensionremoves the minimum health base and the pension contribution entirely I have rent, dividends, interest or royalties with health contribution on at least 6 minimum wagesremoves the minimum health base; the pension contribution stays I am insured under a separate professional scheme: lawyer, notary, militaryremoves the pension contribution; health stays, minimum base included I fall into a health-contribution exempt category under art. 154: dependent child or young person, person with a disability and no income, dependent spouse or parent without own incomeremoves the minimum health base; the pension contribution stays I opted to pay the health contribution on 6 minimum wages — art. 180only matters if the net income is zero or there is a loss: then you pay 2,430 lei and stay insured

The rules behind the numbers

Thresholds are expressed in minimum wages, not in lei, and the minimum wage used is the one in force on 1 January: 4,050 lei for 2026 income.
Pension contribution: 25%, from 12 minimum wages of net income (48,600 lei). Below that it is not due at all. From there, the chosen base cannot be lower than the threshold, so the minimum is 12,150 lei. Above 24 minimum wages the minimum base doubles.
Health contribution: 10% of net income, with the base between 6 and 72 minimum wages. The cap rose from 60 to 72 for 2026 income.
Zero net income or a fiscal loss means no health contribution at all — art. 170 (1). You may opt to pay on 6 minimum wages (2,430 lei) to stay insured. Mind the step between them: at zero you owe nothing, at one leu of net income you owe 2,430.
The top-up to 6 minimum wages is waived in five situations — art. 174 (6): a salary of at least 6 minimum wages, rent / dividends / interest / royalties with the contribution on at least that much, a pension, the exempt categories of art. 154 (1), and the art. 180 option. In any of them you pay 10% of the actual net income — but you do pay.
The pension-contribution exemptions are different, and not symmetric. A pensioner owes no pension contribution on freelance income, however high. Neither does someone insured under a separate professional scheme — lawyer, notary, military. An employee does owe it: their exemption covers royalties only, not freelance work.
Income tax 10%. Under the actual-income system, both contributions are deducted first. Under the income norm, they are not — the tax applies to the whole norm.
Under the income norm, contributions are computed on the norm, not on what you actually received.
Above €25,000 of gross annual income, the norm is no longer allowed.
Income norms are not published centrally, so the figure is entered by hand.

To be checked with an accountant. Unlike the other calculators here, these figures were not confirmed by a practising accountant — they were researched online from sources that agree with each other.

The jump at the pension threshold

A net income of 48,599 lei triggers no pension contribution. One of 48,600 triggers 12,150. One extra leu costs twelve thousand one hundred and fifty lei — the largest step in the Romanian tax system for an individual. It is not a drafting error: the contribution has a minimum base rather than being proportional. But it does mean that between 48,600 and roughly 62,100 lei of net income, a freelancer keeps less than one who earned 48,599 (the contribution is deducted from the tax base, so the break-even is not simply 48,600 + 12,150).

Actual income or income norm

The norm pays off when you receive well above it and have low expenses. It hurts in a weak year, because you pay on the norm regardless. And one thing that is often forgotten: under the norm, contributions are not deducted from the tax base, so the effective rate is higher than it looks.

There is no „already insured", there are five situations

The top-up to the minimum base of 6 minimum wages is waived in five distinct situations (art. 174 (6)): a salary of at least 6 minimum wages, rent / dividends / interest / royalties with the contribution on at least that much, a pension, the exempt categories of art. 154, and the art. 180 option. A salary below 6 minimum wages waives nothing. In every case the 10% on the income actually earned is still due: what is waived is the difference, not the contribution.

Pension contribution: the exemptions run the other way

An employee does owe the pension contribution on freelance income above the threshold; their exemption covers royalties only. A pensioner owes none at all, however much they earn, and neither does anyone insured under a separate professional scheme: lawyer, notary, military.

A year at zero: the 2,430 lei step

With zero net annual income or a fiscal loss, no health contribution is due — art. 170 (1). You may opt to pay anyway, on 6 minimum wages, to stay insured: 2,430 lei a year. Between the two there is an abrupt step, and it is the law that makes it: at zero you owe nothing, at one leu you owe 2,430.

What the calculation leaves out

VAT, which starts at 395,000 lei of turnover and is a flow rather than a cost. Carried-forward losses. Expenses with limited deductibility — entertainment, sponsorship, cars — which are treated here as fully deductible, because a public calculator cannot know them.

Freelancing and keeping the books in a spreadsheet?

In Fivanto you issue invoices, track what you collected and see at any moment where you stand against the thresholds — not next March, when it is too late. With a free tier.

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